‘Heroes’ drops Jesse Alexander and Jeph Loeb

I wanted a “Heroes” shake-up but not like this. Variety reports that “Heroes” co-executive producers Jesse Alexander and Jeph Loeb got the heave-ho from the show.

“It’s understood that Alexander and Loeb were let go because of Peacock execs’ frustration with the creative direction of the show,” says the Variety report. “The show is also said to have been grappling with hefty budget overruns this season, that are going well beyond its already sizable $4 million per-seg pricetag.”

I can’t speak to Alexander’s talents, but I’m pretty familiar with the comic-book stylings of Loeb.

Loeb has already added himself to the pantheon of great Batman scribes with “The Long Halloween” and “Hush” and has really hit it out of the park lately with “Hulk.” I’ve heard Loeb talk before about “Heroes” and he sounded like he had a good handle on that delicate mix of comic-book sensibility with mainstream television.

But with or without Alexander and Loeb, I doubt “Heroes” could ever recapture that lightning in a bottle it had with Season 1. And if you’re hemorrhaging cash and struggling with sagging ratings, you can’t waste precious resources on pointless stuff like Sad Vortex Man and Mohinder the Super-Unlikeable Puss Bucket, not to mention so much time travel that frustrates characters and viewers alike.